TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Back in 2002, Terry Sturgill went to the bank to cash a check, and ended up with a dollar bill that had a Web site address stamped on it.

According to the text of the stamp, he could visit the site – www.wheresgeorge.com – enter the dollar’s serial number, and find out where it had been before it landed in his wallet.

Five years later, what started out as mere curiosity has turned into a hobby that has allowed Sturgill, a retired Peggs, Okla., resident, to track his money all over the globe.

“I never paid any attention to my money before,” he said. “But since I started this, I’ve had bills hit in all 50 states.”

By “hit,” Sturgill’s referring to reports made on the Web site about bills he’s marked with a wheresgeorge.com stamp, just like the one he noticed five years ago. People who end up with those stamped bills can go to the site, enter the series (the year the bill was printed) and the serial number, and find out where the bill has been, according to other “hits” by folks who’ve reported the same bill.

The site was set up in 1998 by Hank Eskin, who also used to sell the stamps used to mark the bills. Now Eskin uses the site just to track money, and lets other folks create the stamps.

“The federal government came to him and said, ‘We have a problem with you using money to advertise,’” said Sturgill. “But you can go online and get stamps. You can get them from stamp-connection.com.”

Although the site’s name obviously refers to George Washington, who graces the $1 bill, greenbacks of any denomination can be marked and traced on wheresgeorge.com. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t illegal to mark a bill, as long as it isn’t rendered unfit to be re-issued.

Sturgill’s most commonly stamped bills are the $1, $2 and $5. So far, he’s marked about 45,000 bills with a value of about $60,000, and he’s received hits from all across the country, and the world.

People who report bills to the site can also send an anonymous e-mail message along with their report, so Sturgill and other wheresgeorge.com stampers can learn a bit about the people who eventually end up with their money – or, rather, money that used to be theirs.

“I got a hit from an island north of Venezuela, I’ve had nine hits in the Soviet Union, I’ve had hits from Nicaragua and Mexico,” he said. “I got a hit from Baghdad, and the message said, ‘I got this bill from Saddam’s pocket when I pulled him out of that hole by the hair of his head.’ I e-mailed him back and said, ‘Are you serious?’ and he said, ‘No, but I had it in my pocket when we captured him.’ He was one of the Marines.”

Sturgill said he also gets a lot of hits from closer locales, especially those where $1 bills are the most common source of payment for services rendered.

“I get a lot of hits from the casinos,” he said. “And I get a lot of hits from Escapades in Tulsa. They’ve sent messages saying, ‘I got this bill when it was put in my G-string.’”

(Escapades, for those who may not be aware, is a strip club. Sturgill stressed that the bills he’s stamped don’t end up there because he took them there himself. By that point, they’ve been passed on to other bill-spenders.)

There aren’t many rules for using the wheresgeorge.com site, but there are a few, and the first guideline involves “natural circulation.” The purpose of the site is to track the “natural and geographic” circulation of money, and according to the site, “Any bills you enter should be spent by you in the normal course of everyday life.”

Sturgill gets a strap of bills every week or so at his bank in Peggs, and stamps them. A strap includes 100 bills, regardless of denomination. Then, in accordance with the wheresgeorge.com guidelines, he goes about the normal course of his everyday life, spending the bills.

“I don’t spend more than $13 at any one place,” he said. “I’ll get $13 worth of gas, and that will get me to Tulsa, then I’ll spend $13 more for gas there.”



Eddie Glenn writes for Tahlequah (Okla.) Daily Press.